Clean technology investment program

Update, 5th August 2013. Australian Government has changed their review process for reviewing applications for funding under the Clean Technology Investment Program for more details, see our Blog entry here.

Special Update, 16 July 2013. Effect of the Prime Minister’s statement on 2014 transition from Carbon tax to emission trading scheme.

As a result of the planned July 2014 transition to an emission trading scheme, and the resulting reduction in government revenue, the clean technology investment program (CTIP) and the clean technology innovation program have been ‘re-profiled’. This basically means that the amount of money available each year has been reduced, but, the schemes’ expiry dates have been extended (unless there is a change of Government and the new Government controls the Senate).

So the take home message is that there is still the opportunity to apply for co-funding of investment in your business, to reduce energy consumption, costs and greenhouse gas emissions. To chat about how this can help to achieve your goals, call us.

The full AusIndustry fact sheet on the changes to the Clean Technology Investment Program are here.

There is a Government scheme which can subsidise energy efficient actions and solar energy installation up to 50% of their cost including all project costs and pre-project costs.

If you believe your company can benefit from a subsidised upgrade you should call us now.

Is there a catch? YES THERE IS! The scheme is wholly funded by the Clean Energy Futures package also known as the “Price on Carbon” or the “Carbon Tax”.

It is quite possible that the scheme will not operate under a future federal government, however this government has released extra funding to be able to fund eligible applications for as long as possible up to the coming election.

The Application Process

In order to apply you have to do significant pre-work to establish an energy Key Performance Indicator and quantify current and proposed energy use.

Genesis Now can assist with that.

Our strategy is to do the minimum required up-front to get the application in and get approval; then provide more implementation assistance once you are pre-approved.

We have 100% success so far on our applications to get to pre-approval (3 out of 3 applications which have been considered so far. There are a further 8 applications yet to be reviewed by AusIndustry, as at 1 July 2013).

To be eligible if you are a manufacturing entity other than food and foundries you have to have:

used at least 300 mega-watt hours of electricity annually; or

used at least five tera-joules of natural gas annually; or

used a mix of fuels and/or electricity that results in the annual emissions of at least 0.27 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent; or

be directly liable under the carbon pricing mechanism;

If your business is a factory based food manufacturing business or a foundry there is no eligibility requirement for minimum energy use onsite.

Full details the CTFFIP program including definitions and eligibility are available: here.

Are there any plant CAPEX plans? Typically new equipment is more efficient than old, so if productivity can be increased while energy use and / or waste is reduced a case can be made to get that subsidised as well, especially when included with faster payback EE items.